farmer1

To be honest i am amzed at how well our secret service is dealing with this, it must be very difficult to infiltrate.

CHRIS_D

I was gonna write something then, but thought better of it for being un-politically correct or dare i say it, even racist

So i havnt. I'll keep my thoughts to myself as it wouldnt happen anyway. this government is shyte IMHO and this country is going down the gutter unless something is done soon. Roll on when i retire and leave this rotten country.

On a good note, the britsh intelligence service is doing a blinding job, god knows what the outcome of this attack would have been if they hadnt of been caught. Chemical warfare/terrorism is a very nasty thing - i know.

OllyK

The phrase "You're damed if you do and your damned if you don't" springs to mind. Give in to terror, let them have their way. They become the all powerful group and those that are oppresed by them will in turn become terrorist and fight that regime.

TBH the terrorists aren't going to change thier minds. I know the Muslim extremists keep getting it in the neck at the moment, but they do seem to be the ones getting more air time than the likes of ETA, the Real IRA and so on.

But to take them as an example, what would the west have to do to stop them by non military means? Get Israel out of the West Bank and so on for a start. Renounce capitalism, everybody convert to Islam etc etc, where would it stop? Short answer is with a group like Al Queada is that it wouldn't. At least the IRA and ETA have stated what they want(ed) and got round a table to discuss it. I can't see Osama sitting down with Bush and comprimising and I don't see Bush or other western leaders being prepared to go very far towards meeting his demands before they are going to be seriously jeopardising their belief system.

On the other hand how do you win against terrorism without turning every western country in to a Police state where you have to show ID everywhere and there are checkpoint every few hundred yards down the road? It's not like you could even say "sod it, we'll just nuke them" as they are amongst us and not in a nice little group in a country of their own.

So....back to my first statement!

Prince Popeye

1st step to get rid of the main man Abdu Hamza(alias Capt. Hook) and his fellow followers.

But i can't see how they'll ever stop terrorism. Those bombs in Spain were apparently in rucksacks?? How the fek can u stop that?

Brendan Hughes

You might get more sensible answers if you don't ask loaded questions.

For option 1, I thought there had been a full scale military invasion of Afghanistan by a coalition of the most powerful armed forces in the world, desperately looking to stave off G Bush's embarrassment before November elections, and they have still failed to find OBL. So not sure just what you want to increase.

For option 2, isn't this what the UK is doing with Northern Ireland in the last 10 years, with (debatably) successful results?

Must say, that's the first news article I've seen (I must read too much raving lefty crap) that mentions GCHQ surveillance in a good light!

boxst

Hello

It is impossible to stop "small scale" terrorism, and that is what the bombs in Spain were. As regards to chemicals, that is even worse: The effect that a very small amount of airbourne irritant had on the tube in Japan was amazing.

You can just try to stop the "bigger" things, like those people getting nuclear weapons.

Steve.

OllyK

If they get Nukes or Bio weapons and have the means to deliver them (Bio more than nuke) then we are all in a world of hurt.

Brendan Hughes

Iraq had pretty much zero links, from what I understood. With the boot on the other foot, they were suppressing the Kurds, who the Turks consider terrorists. Who's right?

I don't think any of the others you've mentioned are a major threat to W Europe or the US, which is what I assumed your first post was about. At least, not before OBL turned up. Yemen's a mess but only near it's borders, you don't hear of Yemeni attacks worldwide.

I'm guessing the trick would be to capture OBL alive, so it's the most difficult of all - how do you stop him poisoning or shooting himself? A dead OBL will be a great martyr for the others to feed off. But with him "gone" (from the minds of the groups, ie discredited rather than martyred), the western world can feel a lot freer from the threats of all those you've mentioned. Let's face it, they weren't much in the news five years ago except as something "over there".

If you are talking about solving the world terrorism problem for all countries, I'm afraid I haven't got time for that

boxst

B2Z:

You don't have any new domestic disputes with Weapon69 to post?!

Steve.